Better late than never. Western Digital on Wednesday finally introduced its first solid-state drive for consumers, the WD SiliconEdge Blue. Many other storage vendors, such as Seagate, Samsung, and Intel, have been offering SSDs for a long time.

The new SSD
Western Digital

WD claims that its new SSD offers fast read/write speeds and high capacities. The WD SiliconEdge Blue SSD will be available in capacities up to 256GB and features the SATA 2 (3Gbps) interface with read speeds up to 250MBps and write speeds up to 170MBps.

According to WD, the new SiliconEdge Blue SSD will be rugged and deliver maximum tolerance for drops, shock, and vibration. Like all SSDs, it operates silently and consumes much less power than regular hard drives.

Based on WD's new multilevel cell flash technology, the new WD SiliconEdge Blue drive has passed WD's extensive functional integrity tests, which subjected the drive to more than 250,000 hours of testing. WD claims that it meets the industry's highest standards of data integrity, reliability, and compatibility

The new SiliconEdge Blue SSD shares the same 2.5-inch design as a laptop's regular hard drive, so you can replace your laptop's existing drive with it, provided you don't mind the hefty price tag. It's available now; the price ranges from $279 to $999 for capacities ranging from 64GB to 256GB.

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CNET editor Dong Ngo has been involved with technology since 2000, starting with testing gadgets and writing code for CNET Labs' benchmarks. He now manages CNET San Francisco Labs, reviews 3D printers, networking/storage devices, and also writes about other topics from online security to new gadgets and how technology impacts the life of people around the world.
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